Laos participated in both sessions of the Paris International Conference on Cambodia, 1989 and 1991, but did not play a major role. Laos was one of the 18 countries that signed the Paris Agreements on Cambodia in October 1991. Soon after the formation of the new Cambodian government, both countries agreed on the setting of the Cambodia-Laos Joint Boundary Commission (CLJBC) and Laos-Cambodia Joint Boundary Commission (LCJBC) which held an inaugural meeting in Vientiane on 20-22 November 1995. However, the demarcation of the border has yet to be fully settled. There was good cooperation between the two countries over the relocation of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, with the latter in the spirit of friendship, flexibility, and compromise relinquishing her candidacy in favor of Vientiane, where the main MRC headquarters remains today.
Laos joined ASEAN in 1997 and Cambodia in 1999, after the end of the Cold War, in order to become members of a regional club that provided them with legitimacy as well as acceptance by the wider international community while trying to protest their status as independent sovereign states. Prime Minister Hun Sen has paid a number of official visits to Laos during this period. In October 1999, during one of such visits, Cambodia and Laos signed an extradition treaty and agreements on energy cooperation and land transport. During this visit, an informal Summit of the Prime Ministers of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, the first of several, was held in the Lao capital. However, relations became tense again in May 2007 over the signature by the Lao government of a memorandum of understanding with Thailand’s CH. Karnchang Public Company for the development of a hydropower dam project on the Lower Mekong, 350 kilometers north of the Lao capital. Known as the Xayabury Hydroelectric Power Project, the USD 3.8 billion dam, slated for completion in 2019, would generate 1285 megawatts of electricity -enough to power a medium-sized Southeast Asian city- mostly for export to Thailand. (Science magazine, 12 August 2011, Vol. 333, p. 814). However, relations became tense again in May 2007 over the signature by the Lao government of a memorandum of understanding with Thailand’s CH. Karnchang Public Company for the development of a hydropower dam project on the Lower Mekong, 350 kilometers north of the Lao capital. Known as the Xayabury Hydroelectric Power Project, the USD 3.8 billion dam, slated for completion in 2019, would generate 1285 megawatts of electricity -enough to power a medium-sized Southeast Asian city- mostly for export to Thailand. (Science magazine, 12 August 2011, Vol. 333, p. 814).
The proposed dam’s construction should have been submitted, prior to any signature, for assessment by the Mekong River Commission (MRC), which includes Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam (and China and Burma as observers), as any project of such magnitude may affect the sustainable development of the Lower Mekong Basin. Cambodia and Vietnam expressed concern that the information they had received from Laos was not enough to form a satisfactory view of the project (Ibid). A series of misunderstandings followed over this issue, as Cambodian fishermen complained that the dam in Laos and also dams constructed by China on the Mekong had disrupted vital fish migrations, causing a substantial drop in the fish population of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, often described as the “Heart of the Mekong” (Radio Free Asia, 19 April 2012). In April 2014, Laos announced that Cambodia had given its agreement for the opening of a Lao Consulate General in Siem Reap, as the number of Lao visitors to Angkor, had reached 300.000 in 2013, this was followed by the opening of a Consulate in the border province of Stung Treng, which has a large Lao-speaking population. On 1 July 2016, Cambodia opened a Consulate in Champassak province of Laos. In June 2016, the two countries celebrated the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with renewed assurances from both sides Cambodian representatives at a celebration in Vientiane were highly appreciative of “Laos’ important contribution to the peace process in Cambodia over the past decade”. While Lao representatives highlighted Cambodia’s contribution to “Lao national re-construction and defense” (The Jakarta Post, 9 June 2016).
Trade exchanges between the two countries have not been satisfactory after the signature of a trade agreement in 1998. Since 2013 the two countries have been having joint meetings to promote the extension of trade and eliminate barriers that would prevent trade exchanges from increasing. Trade between the two countries in 2015 amounted to USD 25.5 million while investment by Cambodian enterprise in Laos amounted to USD 84 million.
In July 2016, at the ASEAN Summit chaired by Laos, Cambodia, and Laos were alleged to have sided with China on the issue of the South China Sea, an issue which has divided ASEAN for several years as some of its members are claimants to the South China Sea, with an ASEAN diplomat telling the press that “Cambodia has taken a hard line. Laos is hiding behind its role as ASEAN chairman and not saying anything but at the same time it is careful not to offend China” (AFP, Vientiane, 23 July 2016). China’s rising regional influence has eclipsed for some years now Vietnam, which used to be a traditional regional power and close political and ideological ally of Cambodia and Laos, at the expense of both countries’ longstanding friendship with Hanoi. China has invested heavily in both countries as well as providing generous grants and loans for the national reconstruction and development of the two countries and Chinese assistance comes with no strings attached for the promotion of democracy, good governance or the respects for human rights, as assistance provided by the European Union, the USA and other countries does.
Cambodia and Laos, no doubt recognize, as Vietnam surely does also, that they each need to live with a big and strong neighbor recognized as the world’s largest economic power. In early 2017, the Cambodian and Lao Prime Ministers inaugurated the first international border checkpoint between the two countries at Nongnokheane-Trapeang Kriel. However, in February, just before the visit of the new Lao President -Bounnhang Vorachith to Cambodia as guest of King Norodom Sihamoni, the Cambodian press reported that there had been the build-up at the border with Laos and alleged that up to 400 Lao soldiers had crossed the border into Cambodia to block Cambodian military engineers from constructing a road (The Cambodia Daily, 20 February 2017).
However, officials in Phnom Penh were quick to downplay the incident and the visit of the Lao President, according to a communique issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was successful on many fronts, including, the use of Cambodian ports by Laos, trade, border demarcation and bilateral cooperation on drug trafficking and illegal logging (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Phnom Penh, 24 February 2017). The situation remained serious with reports suggesting that Lao and Cambodian soldiers remained “face to face” while the new Lao Prime Minister was paying an official visit to
Cambodia in early May 2017 (Phnom Penh Post, 15 May 2017).
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